| 11. Linguistic Exegesis The verse is driven by a tight sequence of wayyiqtol verbs, vayyakhar {וַיַּ֣חַר | way-yaḥar} ‘and it burned’ followed by vayakhshveni {וַיַּחְשְׁבֵ֖נִי | way-yaḥ-šə-ḇê-nî} ‘and He considered me,’ moving from emotion to evaluation. The prepositional phrase alai {עָלַ֣י | ʿā-lay} ‘against me’ is placed immediately after the first verb, heightening the personal impact before the subject is specified by appo {אַפּ֑וֹ | ʾap-pô} ‘His anger,’ an anthropomorphic idiom (literally “His nose”) for wrath. The second clause marks the result of that hostility: the object is built into the verb (“me”), then the dative lo {ל֣וֹ | lô} ‘to Him / in His estimation’ frames the assessment as the speaker’s perceived standing before Him. The comparison ketsarayv {כְצָרָֽיו | kə-ṣā-rāw} ‘like His adversaries’ completes the thought by classifying the speaker among opponents, a relational shift that intensifies the complaint. |